Latest news with #MarkGreenberg
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Crypto Exchange Kraken Adds Bitcoin Staking Via Babylon as BTC Driven DeFi Picks Up
Crypto exchange Kraken has launched bitcoin BTC staking through a new integration with Babylon, as decentralized finance on BTC picks up. Babylon is a Bitcoin-native protocol that enables BTC to secure proof-of-stake (PoS) networks without leaving the blockchain. The service allows Kraken users to stake their bitcoin directly, locking it in a custodial vault on the native chain. The staked bitcoin is then delegated to PoS networks via Babylon, and rewards are paid in BABY, the token of Babylon Genesis, a bitcoin-secured Layer 1, Kraken said. Bitcoin has historically been used as a store of value and a medium of exchange. The advent of novel security sharing protocols has made BTC staking a third native use case, bitcoin DeFi, for the world's largest cryptocurrency. The Bitcoin network is "evolving into a broader decentralized finance ecosystem with the emergence of Bitcoin DeFi," Binance Research said in a report in March. Only ~0.8% of the bitcoin supply is currently being used in DeFi, and this presents a large "untapped opportunity," the report said. Binance, the competing crypto exchange of Kraken, also offers a bitcoin staking opportunity on its platform through Babylon. 'With this launch, clients can earn a return on their BTC while also enabling emerging PoS blockchains to benefit from the economic weight of bitcoin in order to validate transactions and bolster the security of their networks,' said Kraken's Global Head of Consumer, Mark Greenberg, in the release. The mechanism is fully on-chain, with staking governed by Bitcoin scripts and cryptographic safeguards to deter malicious behavior. Users can unstake at any time, with around a 7-day unbonding period. The crypto exchange first introduced custodial staking in 2019. The bitcoin staking feature is now available across all Kraken platforms.
Business Wire
a day ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Kraken Launches Bitcoin Staking via the Babylon Bitcoin Staking Protocol, Unlocking New Reward Opportunities for Clients' BTC
CHEYENNE, Wyo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kraken, one of the longest-standing, most liquid and secure cryptocurrency exchanges, today announced the launch of Bitcoin (BTC) staking through a new integration with the Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol, a Bitcoin-native staking protocol. The integration enables Kraken clients to earn passive rewards on their BTC without bridging, wrapping or lending it out. Beginning today, Kraken clients can choose to stake their Bitcoin directly from Kraken through an integration with the Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol. The BTC is locked in a vault on the native Bitcoin chain and delegated to secure Proof of Stake networks via the Babylon protocol. Staked Bitcoin rewards are paid in BABY, the native token for Babylon Genesis, the first L1 network to be supercharged by Bitcoin. 'A substantial amount of Bitcoin currently sits idle on our exchange, representing a significant opportunity cost for clients and a missed opportunity for the broader ecosystem,' said Mark Greenberg, Global Head of Consumer. 'With this launch, clients can now earn a return on their BTC while also enabling emerging PoS blockchains to benefit from the economic weight of Bitcoin in order to validate transactions and bolster the security of their networks.' 'Kraken's integration with the Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol shows how trust-minimized, Bitcoin staking can work at scale,' said Clayton Menzel, Head of Business Development at Babylon Labs. 'By anchoring staked BTC on the native chain and delegating it to PoS networks, Kraken clients can finally earn rewards without bridges or wrappers, helping preserve Bitcoin's unmatched security and sovereignty. This launch channels Bitcoin's economic gravity into securing the next wave of PoS ecosystems and marks a major step toward a truly BTC-native DeFi landscape.' Holders' staked BTC never leaves the Bitcoin blockchain. The staking mechanism is governed by Bitcoin scripts, and staking rewards are handled by on-chain logic on Babylon Genesis, publicly verifiable by users and third parties. The BTC staking protocol also includes cryptographic safeguards to deter and penalize malicious behaviors. Clients can unstake their BTC at any time, with a ~7-day unbonding period before funds are available for withdrawal. This launch marks a significant expansion of Kraken's growing staking suite and further reinforces the platform's leadership in product innovation. Kraken was one of the first exchanges to introduce custodial staking in 2019, enabling millions of users to participate in earning rewards through its Earn platform. The BTC staking product is available starting today across all Kraken platform interfaces, including Kraken and Kraken Pro. For more information, please visit h ttps:// About Kraken Kraken is a technology platform built on crypto that unlocks access and reduces inefficiencies to drive financial freedom — for the crypto economy and beyond. Millions of individuals, professional traders, and institutions around the world use Kraken to trade digital and traditional assets, including cryptocurrencies, national currencies, U.S. futures, and U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs. Kraken markets can be monitored and traded via the web or through the Kraken and Kraken Pro iOS and Android apps. Futures platforms by NinjaTrader, a Kraken company, are available on desktop, web, and mobile via For more information about Kraken, please visit About Babylon Labs Babylon Labs focuses on Bitcoin security-sharing protocols with a vision of building a Bitcoin-secured decentralized world. The latest software development is the world's first trustless and self-custodial Bitcoin staking protocol, which enables Bitcoin holders to stake their BTC on other decentralized systems such as PoS chains, L2s, Data Availability (DA) layers, etc, enabling stakers to earn staking rewards without the need for third-party custody, bridge solutions, or wrapping services. The greater idea is to combine the high security and wide adoption of Bitcoin with the efficiency and scalability of PoS systems, increasing Bitcoin's utility.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Global Dollar's USDG Eyes Hundreds of Partners Attracted by Yield, Sees 'Big Names' From TradFi
It's early days for USDG, a stablecoin that debuted in November, but a thousand firms could join the Global Dollar group that helps popularize the token in return for a share of the yield earned on reserve assets, according to crypto exchange Kraken, one of the founding partners. USDG, whose other backers include trading platform Robinhood (HOOD), stablecoin issuer Paxos, crypto investor Galaxy Digital and crypto bank Anchorage Digital, recently welcomed 19 new joiners, many of them crypto native firms. Banks and large traditional finance firms are also lining up, Kraken's consumer business lead Mark Greenberg said. 'There are 25-plus partners now, and I hope in another month, we'll be announcing the next 25, and then the next 25. So from 25 to 50 to 1,000," Greenberg said in an interview. "I'm very excited about some of the partners coming up in traditional finance and in crypto — big names on both sides. We're talking to a lot of banks and I think a few will be coming online soon.' The changing dollar stablecoin landscape has been dominated by two big players: Tether's USDT, far and away the largest at a market cap of over $150 billion, and Circle's USDC which commands a circulation of just over $60 billion. USDG has just $276 million, making it the 24th-largest stablecoin in a CoinGecko ranking. Paxos, the New York-regulated stablecoin specialist underpinning USDG, originally offered a contender to USDC and USDT in the form of tie-up with exchange giant Binance, but the partnership was discontinued for regulatory reasons. Greenberg said Global Dollar is a 'true consortium,' and Paxos is a distribution partner, albeit with some particular administrative duties. 'We are building a decentralized community around the stablecoin, with yield that goes back to everybody,' Greenberg said. 'Some of us are founding partners, and if we were a property company, Paxos would be the property management. They make sure that the licenses are in place and that the treasuries are handled properly and that the minting is done. But it's on all of us to be equal partners in making the Global Dollar network a success.' Driving the consortium's growth is the offer of yield, which both incentivizes firms to join up, and also reimagines stablecoins as part of the wider financial system, Greenberg said. It's also how USDG plans to challenge the dominance of Tether and Circle. 'I believe in decentralization over centralization. I believe in giving the value back to users, and USDG is doing that in a way that you can't with Circle or Tether today,' said Greenberg. 'Tether and Circle make a lot of money. In banking you give your deposits and they do things with it, but you get almost nothing back. But stablecoins shouldn't be like that.' Kraken moves a lot of money around the world and naturally the firm has been using USDG, eating its own dog food, in business innovation parlance. 'We use global dollars and the USDG all over the world,' Greenberg said. 'You send a wire and it can take four or five days and get stuck in some random bank along the way. That's already changing really fast. And you see players like Visa and MasterCard and others come to the table and stablecoins start to play that role in a much bigger way.' Kraken's clients are also taking advantage of earning up to 4.1% on U.S. dollars in every country in the world by putting their money in USDG, Greenberg added. 'If you're in the U.S., maybe that's not that exciting, because there are other ways to do that. But if you're in Argentina, or if you're in Canada, where there are no U.S. dollar accounts and earning 4.1% is unheard of, it's a very cool opportunity to make that happen.' UPDATE (May 22, 16:22 UTC): Rewrites headline, first paragraph to make clear Global Dollar is the name of the consortium, USDG the name of the stablecoin.
Business Wire
22-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Kraken Partners with Backed to Launch xStocks on Solana, Bringing Tokenized Equities to the Masses
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Kraken, a technology platform built on crypto that unlocks access and reduces inefficiencies to drive financial freedom, today announced a strategic partnership with Backed, the pioneering issuer of tokenized stocks, and the Solana Foundation to bring tokenized U.S. equities to investors worldwide. Announced at Solana Accelerate, Backed will initially deploy SPL-based digital representations of U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs on the Solana blockchain. These tokenized assets will soon be available to eligible Kraken clients in select non-U.S. markets directly through the Kraken app. As part of the rollout, Backed is launching xStocks, a new tokenized equities brand designed to empower crypto platforms to offer onchain exposure to U.S. equities – with Kraken as its first launch partner. Kraken selected Solana as the launch chain for xStocks because of its unmatched performance, low latency and thriving global ecosystem. As the most used public blockchain in the world, Solana provides the ideal foundation for bringing equities onchain at internet scale. 'We're reimagining equities investing and ushering in a new wave of demand from clients seeking better alternatives to the status quo,' said Mark Greenberg, Kraken's Global Head of Consumer. 'Access to traditional U.S. equities remains slow, costly, and restricted. With xStocks, we're using blockchain technology to deliver something better – open, instant, accessible, and borderless exposure to some of America's most iconic companies. This is what the future of investing looks like.' 'This collaboration marks a pivotal moment in democratizing access to traditional finance. By bringing exposure to U.S. equities onchain we're unlocking a new era of DeFi composable, 24/7 global markets,' said Adam Levi, Cofounder of Backed. 'xStocks's infrastructure is designed to seamlessly bridge the gap between traditional and decentralized finance, and we couldn't ask for a more forward-thinking partner than Kraken to lead this charge. xStocks are designed to be a neutral, public good asset class, and we look forward to expanding xStocks to other exchanges and chains.' "This collaboration is a powerful step toward realizing the vision of internet capital markets and global, 24/7, permissionless access to the financial system," said Amelia Daly, Head of Partnerships at Solana Foundation. "By bringing tokenized U.S. equities onchain with Solana's high-performance infrastructure, this product is showing how public blockchains can unlock entirely new investing experiences at internet scale. This is what it means to build for the future of finance." Launching xStocks on Kraken builds on increasing equities momentum, and signals an intent to grow access to equities-related products worldwide. In April, Kraken launched the trading of 11,000+ U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs for U.S. clients, and plans to expand this offering to users in the U.K., Europe, and Australia in the future. Looking ahead, Kraken and Backed will also explore opportunities to bring tokenized equities to additional chains beyond Solana, accelerating innovation and expanding access to global markets like never before. About Kraken Kraken is one of the world's longest-standing and most secure crypto platforms. Our mission is to accelerate the global adoption of crypto, so that everyone can achieve financial freedom and inclusion. Globally, Kraken clients trade more than 300 digital assets and 6 different national currencies, including GBP, EUR, USD, CAD, CHF, and AUD. Founded in 2011, Kraken was among the first to offer spot trading with margin, parachain auctions, staking, regulated derivatives and index services under one roof. With millions of individuals, traders and institutions around the world, Kraken offers professional 24/7/365 client support along with one of the fastest, most performant trading platforms available. Kraken has set the industry standard for transparency and client trust, and was the first crypto platform to conduct Proof of Reserves. Kraken markets can be monitored and traded via the web or through the Kraken and Kraken Pro iOS and Android apps. For more information about Kraken, please visit
Axios
08-05-2025
- Business
- Axios
Crypto custody at the SEC
Custody professionals showed up Friday at the SEC to urge the agency to create principled regulations around the business of safeguarding digital assets, while also urging it not to specify technological solutions. Why it matters: Digital assets are bearer instruments, and the industry has had a lot of failures in terms of keeping those bearer instruments safe. Between the lines: Custody is the core idea of cryptocurrency. Before Bitcoin, there was no way for an individual to hold value digitally on their own. The big picture: Very few investors want to hold these assets themselves, however. Especially gigantic, heavily regulated investors. Between the lines: The fact that not all digital assets are under the SEC's purview is going to complicate rulemaking: The SEC only has authority over securities, and it looks likely that very few digital assets will be securities in the end. Which could mean that there's two different rules for safeguarding assets that — from a custodian's perspective — are basically the same. Friction point: One issue that seemed to spark some dispute on the panel was how customer assets should be segregated. They could have all the funds mixed but the separate amounts logged in off-chain accounts, or they could constantly rebalance between thousands of individual wallets. Mark Greenberg, Kraken vice president, argued that mixing is less prone to security lapses. "The less crypto moves around, the less people have to approve things [and] move it around the better." Though others pointed out that this raises issues with dealing with the external world. What we're watching: Only one panelist was there to speak for self-custody, the concept invented with Bitcoin, where a person can steward their own assets.
